Twins sweep sad Sox

Friday

Jun 16, 2006 at 6:00 AM

By Phil O’Neill TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The Red Sox awakened a slumbering baseball team here and stumbled into their worst trouble of the young season.

The aroused Twins and a suddenly efficient Carlos Silva beat hard-luck knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, 5-3, last night to complete a three-game sweep and send the suddenly slumping Bostons to their fourth straight loss and their fifth defeat in six games.

The last time the Red Sox lost four straight games was May 24-27 last season. They lost three in a row twice before in 2006, both skids coming in April. The last time Boston was swept in a three-game series by the Twins was Aug. 8-10, 1994 at the Metrodome.

Boston not only failed to gain on the Yankees, who lost to the Indians, 8-4, but fell into a second-place tie with the Blue Jays, who beat the Orioles, 4-2, one game behind New York.

Whereas the Twins won the first two games in the series with the help of grand slams, last night they pecked the Red Sox to death, scoring single runs in the first three innings and also the fifth in building a 4-0 lead through six innings.

Wakefield (4-8) took the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits, two walks and a wild pitch over six innings. He struck out four and threw 95 pitches.

Silva, who came into the game with a 2-8 record and 7.73 ERA, got the win. He shut down Boston on seven hits and no runs over six-plus innings. Silva left the game with cramping in his left hamstring in the seventh after Trot Nixon and Mike Lowell led off with singles.

Reliever Juan Rincon did a great job, popping up Coco Crisp and Doug Mirabelli and striking out pinch hitter Mark Loretta to get out of the inning.

Rincon, though, ran into trouble in the eighth when he hit Alex Cora with a pitch after Kevin Youkilis led off with a double. David Ortiz then reached on an infield single off the glove of first baseman Justin Morneau, loading the bases.

Closer Joe Nathan came on to strike out Manny Ramirez. Trot Nixon delivered a run with a sacrifice fly and Mike Lowell singled to left for another run, making it 4-2. Nathan gave up another single to Coco Crisp, loading the bases, but then got pinch hitter Jason Varitek to end the inning with a foul pop to third.

The Twins scored in the bottom of the eighth before the Sox added a run in the ninth on an RBI single by Ortiz.

The Red Sox continued to play brilliantly on defense, but both their offense and pitching fell apart here. They managed only five runs in the three games, while their injury-riddled and under-performing pitching staff gave up 17 runs.

Minnesota, which was expected to challenge in the AL Central, came into the series with a 28-34 record, six games under .500 and 11-1/2 games behind the surprising Tigers, who have made the division a two-team duel against the World Series champion White Sox.

Minnesota inched ahead, 1-0, without benefit of a hit in the first inning as Wakefield’s knuckleball danced too much. Luis Castillo walked, went to second on a passed ball, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Joe Mauer’s grounder to short.

Red Sox pitching has done wonders for Jason Kubel, who homered in all three games of this series. The left-fielder gave the Twins a 2-0 lead with his fifth home run of the season in the second. He had a grand slam Tuesday night and a two-run homer Wednesday night.

The Twins made it 3-0 in the third when Jason Bartlett doubled and scored on Luis Castillo’s hot grounder through the box, which Wakefield almost speared.—

Wakefield finally had a scoreless inning, and a 1-2-3 one at that, in the fourth.

Silva limited the Red Sox to four hits in the first five innings. The only real threat Boston mustered was in the third when Youkilis and Cora had back-to-back, two-out singles. Ortiz hit into a fielder’s choice to end that threat.

Wakefield has received the fourth lowest run support of any regular starting pitcher in the majors, with his teammates averaging 3.1 runs when he’s actually pitching and 3.8 runs overall. The Sox have scored a total of six runs when he’s on the mound in his seven losses, an average of 0.86 runs per game.

His 3.93 ERA going into last night was better than any Sox starter except Curt Schilling (3.59). He pitched well enough to win his last time out, allowing two runs in seven innings, but Jonathan Papelbon blew his first save of the season and Wakefield got only a no-decision in Boston’s eventual 4-3 victory over Texas.—

Silva hasn’t won since beating Texas, 15-5, back on May 9. After losing his next start, he made five appearances out of the bullpen, then lost to Oakland and Baltimore in his last two starts.

The Twins have won six of their last seven games against the Red Sox in the Metrodome.